Watch the moment a baby gentoo penguin emerges from its shell (Video)

The baby Gentoo hatched after 34 days of incubation

Jack Simpson

Monday 24 November 2014

Incredible footage has emerged of the moment a baby gentoo penguin broke free of its shell in an animal park in north-west China.

A monitoring camera set-up in the penguin enclosure at the Hangzhou Polar Ocean Park, Zhejiang Province, captured the tiny long-tailed gentoo penguin as it breaks through the shell and sees the world for the first time.

In the video taken on the 20 November, we see the baby break the shell in half, before struggling to find its feet and escape its case.

The video then cuts to the penguin’s mother as she uses her beak to reposition the new arrival and bring it into the warmth of her underbelly.

 It is very rare for the birth process to be captured at such close quarters and has given staff at the Polar Ocean Park an incredible insight into the birthing process of the species.

In the wild, female gentoo penguins usually lay two eggs with four days of one another; they will then be incubated for a period of around 34 days before hatching.

The chicks will continue to be fed and cared for by their mother for around 14 weeks.

The video emerged yesterday on Chinese News Channel CCTV, and has subsequently been uploaded onto their Youtube channel.

This is the latest gentoo to be born in captivity in recent times.

In August, Tennessee Aquarium in the US welcomed two new Gentoos to their penguin enclosure.

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